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[GUIDE]Melee Kassadin

Pretty sick of seeing all the "QQ melee sucks on Kassadin, hes only good CASTadin" well I say BS. I've been playing a successful melee Kassadin since August.

ITEMS:

The important thing to realize about Kassadin is that MOST items are good on him. Stack sunfire capes if you want, stack AP, Lich Bane, Triforce, etc. You have to build him based on the flow of the game, like what you are up against.

This is a really hard guide to write because there are so many choices for items...

One thing for certain with Melee Kassadin is that you need to have high survivability. Because of his ultimate, he is one of the best initiators in the game (next to Malph). Also because of his ultimate you dont have to build him HEAVILY tank like you do Malphite. He can blink in, initiate, and blink out.

The one item you want in just about every game is Chalice. This item fuels your early-mid game before your 'W' becomes effective.

To be successful you need to play against your opponents. If you are against a team built for AoE damage or a team where their casters are dominating you, get Chalice, Mercury Treads, and Lich Bane(Wit's End is cheaper but just does not perform as well as LB). If you are against a team where their dps is primarily physical, a Sunfire stacking build might work, but I prefer to just go more of a hybrid HP/AP/Melee build. The hybrid build works extremely well if you are against a well balanced team.

So let me just list the items you want to be picking and choosing for a melee orientated build the key is a balance of offense and defense:

Chalice
Frozen Mallet
Nashor's Tooth
Triforce
Lich Bane
Rageblade is good, but its lower in survivability, get it later on
Rylai's Scepter
Rod of Ages
Just like Rageblade you can get any other phyiscal DPS item later on

Here's my most common build:

1. Meki Pendant, 2 Health pots to start
2. get boots and chalice when you can (note: depending on my gold I might get boots and Ruby Crystal for health early instead of chalice)
3. Phage
4. make boots into either Berserker Greaves or something to counter a stack of physical/casters/aoe/CC (tabi or merc)
5. A second Phage(this will make your melee attack strong and give you good early game survivability)
6. Sheen
7. Finish Triforce OR get a Giant's Belt if you feel you need more HP
8. Finish Mallet (game is generally close to over at this point)
9. Nashor's Tooth OR Rylai's for more HP(just cause its melee doesn't mean AP is bad)
10. From here its up to you anything will work really. Rageblade, maybe a more melee route and get a Bloodthirster or Infinity Blade, etc.

Playstyle:

Melee Kassadin does not mean he is a physical DPS carry like Yi. You are performing a different role for your group. What I usually end up doing is initiating, doing a good amount of AoE damage through my ult and E and silencing who needs to be silenced, this alone with LB/Triforce attacks will drop around 3 members of a team to half or below, at this point your team will be also on them, finishing off the low guys, and you can blink out. After I blink out I usually come directly back in from the back and start nuking and using my slow on runners. Killing runners is something Kassadin can do no matter the build.

I have had games where this gets me a record like 15-5 or I've had games where I've been something like 5-4-17 just initiating and doing enough AoE damage to let my team finish everyone else off. Don't think because you aren't getting kills with this build that its bad. The point of this build is to be an asset to your team in teamfights by being an initiator and an off-tank.

Be very aggressive with casting and attacks when you have Triforce or LB make sure you time them right so you go cast->attack->cast->attack without casting twice in a row.

Also, during late game, try to focus your attacks on whoever is the biggest problem, the faster they run out of mana(from your W) the better.

Early Game

Here is my skill selection:

Q
E
Q
E
Q
R
Q
E
Q
E
R
W
E
W
W
R
W
W

W is basically useless early game. Higher nuke damage will ALWAYS be better. I get W at level 12 because at that point no matter what, your nukes without AP will be less effective and melee kicks in.

In lanes you want to either be harassing with your Q, or farming with it. If you are having trouble getting last hits, a combination of Q last hits and Smite will get you good gold flow. I usually get smite on melees for this reason. If your Q harassment has proven ineffective, focus on using it to last hit. Against people without regen/heals Q is great for harassment. Try to save E to either save yourself or to ensure you get a kill.

Kassadin is my favorite champion because there are so many possibilities for him. I think I may start experimenting with a pure physical/melee build and see how that works. In a build like that Mallet is still a must. Triforce too probably...those 2 items together are just so good on so many champions.

Good luck with melee Kassadin, I hope this helps!

EDIT: I forgot to mention an item you may not have thought to get on him. Atma's Impaler. One of my old builds was Mallet->Nashors->Rylai's->Atmas. Very effective. Drop out the Nashor's for the Atma's earlier if you want. Atma's is a great choice against a more physical team (armor and HP).

You must have skipped sections. Did you honestly notice much of an AP stack in the items? Its about being in melee not being an AP carry. It never hurts to balance AP into the build.

also:

Quote:

Melee Kassadin does not mean he is a physical DPS carry like Yi. You are performing a different role for your group. What I usually end up doing is initiating, doing a good amount of AoE damage through my ult and E and silencing who needs to be silenced, this alone with LB/Triforce attacks will drop around 3 members of a team to half or below, at this point your team will be also on them, finishing off the low guys, and you can blink out. After I blink out I usually come directly back in from the back and start nuking and using my slow on runners. Killing runners is something Kassadin can do no matter the build.

I play Kassadin a ton but always go the AP route. However, since Kassadin's spells all have useful non-damage effects (silence, slow, and teleport) the skills will still be useful without stacking AP and I can see how a melee build might work.

While AP Kassadin is a ganking machine, his biggest weakness is tower/lane pushing. How does melee Kassadin do at taking down towers?

frozen mallet seems silly. with teleport and an AOE slow, kass doesn't really need much more help chasing.

Frozen Mallet is for the health and damage, not just the slow. It is a perfect combination of offensive and defensive stats which is what this build is all about.

@ersl I have only tried fitting Wit's End into my build once, and I found the combined mana-burn really lackluster. I was beating on a Taric for AGES with it and he had enough mana to tank me for a pretty decent amount of time. If I remember right it was mid game and he didnt have a whole lot of items because my team was winning.

I am glad you see his potential without AP, however. I had a game last night where I started off 3-6, and my whole team, all 4 of them, were RAILING on me for not going AP. I could not believe how closed-minded they were in a pub. Needless to say I ended the game 9-6-11 so they can all shove it I went 6-0 at the end haha.

W is basically useless early game. Higher nuke damage will ALWAYS be better. I get W at level 12 because at that point no matter what, your nukes without AP will be less effective and melee kicks in.

Stopped reading right there. Not getting 1 level of W at level 2 or 4 (1 and 3 should always be sphere) is stupid and counter productive to your ultimate early game goal which is to stay in your lane for as long as possible. Even if you're getting harrassed the few hits to creeps when they get to your tower is what lets you pump out extra spheres.